We sometimes struggle to find brilliant, accomplished people to put on our list of nominees for Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year. No problem this year, not with the news out of Stockholm about UT-Southwestern's newest Nobel laureate.

Beutler has been recruited to direct the new Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at UT Southwestern, a research enterprise devoted to understanding how the body recognizes an infection is present, a spokesman said. Beutler has long ties to the university -- after finishing medical school, Beutler did his residency training at UT Southwestern and from 1986 to 2000 he served on the faculty.

Before the Nobel news broke, one our top candidates in the research realm was a Plano East High School student, Param Jaggi, who was named to Popular Science magazine's list of top student inventors. Smart kid with a bright future, but a Nobelist makes a better candidate any day.

Here is the list of nominees so far from readers for 2011 Texan of the Year:

We are looking for nominees who made the greatest impact in Texas this year, from any field. Think public service, philanthropy, law, sports, arts, business, religion, music, academia, research, medicine, education, agriculture, activism, etc.